Icelandic skyr now makes up 2% of the US yogurt market

Siggi's skyr Three of the 30 different products the US based The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation produces. Photo/vísir-Siggi's skyr

The Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corporation, which was founded by the Icelandic entrepreneur Sigurður Kjartan Hilmarsson in 2006, now has a 2% market share of the US yoghurt market. Siggi’s skyr is available at 25,000 stores around the US.

Sigurður Kjartan told the local newspaper Fréttablaðið that the company, which was founded in New York State in 2006 now has two dairies producing skyr. According to Nielsen data the company commands 2% of the US yogurt market, making it a small but significant player in the market, according to Sigurður.

The story behind Siggi’s skyr

The creator and his products Sigurður Kjartan Hilmarsson started with a family recipe from a 1963 cook book. Photo/Vísir

Sigurður, or Siggi as he is known to friends, has lived on Manhattan since 2002 where he worked for Deloitte Consulting on Wall Street. In 2004 Sigurður got interested in making skyr at home, using an old family recipe he got from his mother.

Experimenting with the recipe, which was from a recipe book written down by hand in 1963, Siggi managed to master the art of skyr making, and in 2006 he founded the company and left his job on Wall Street.

Today Siggi’s employs 40 people and hundreds of contractors producing 30 different products, which are available in chains like Whole Foods and Target. The big jump came last year when the company reached an agreement with Starbucks, Sigurður tells Fréttablaðið. Now customers at seven thousand Starbucks coffee shops around the US can purchase Siggi’s skyr products.